To get a first hand insight on the impacts of prolonged antibiotic use, expert interviews of 5 physicians were included into the study. In essence, physicians were requested to monitor the effects on pediatric patients after the administration of specific antibiotic therapies. 50 patients were included into the study and all were between the ages of 5-12 years. All the five physicians independently monitored the effects, after which their reports were collected, collated and analyzed in relation to the thesis of the research paper.
Even though the study was general in nature, the specific three classes of symptomatic effects included; (1) Diarrhea, and (2). Upper gastrointestinal tract symptoms such as nausea, abdominal pain, anorexia, dizziness and vomiting. The research was also interested in finding out whether diarrhea occurred independently of the gastrointestinal symptoms or whether the two classes of symptoms occurred in combination. The antibiotics included in the study are; Trimethoprim, Erythromycin, Penicillin and Cloxacillin.
The results found thereof were then analyzed and compared to the information gathered from the literature study. The discussion presented herein with regard to prolonged use of antibiotics and the development of antibiotic resistance is purely drawn from a comprehensive analysis of a number of research resources drawn from Ebsco Host research database, published books and a host of other Internet resources. Impacts of Long Term Use of Antibiotics in Humans One of the most common side effects of prolonged usage of antibiotics in diarrhea which is caused by Clostridium difficile; an anaerobic bacterium.
Prolonged antibiotic usage disrupts the normal intestinal flora balance. Antibiotics can also induce the disruption of normal vaginal bacterial flora stimulating an overgrowth of yeast species, especially Candida albicans in the vulvo-vaginal region. Proliferation of Candida albicans (the most frequent Candida genus) which normally resides in the gastrointestinal system is stimulated due to the decimation of normal bacterial flora of the vaginal region due to long term use of antibiotics. Normal resident bacterial populations exert a controlling effect on the yeast populations.
Apart from indiscriminate killing of all bacteria, long term antibiotic therapy has also been associated with immune dysregulation hence the body loses control over the proliferation of both mycelial and spore forms of yeasts. While the spore form only infects the mucous membranous lining, the mycelial form infects deeper tissues and has the potentiality of becoming systemic (Preidt 2008). Of the 50 children included in the study, 87 %( 104 cases) exhibited a combination of all the classes of impacts sought for in the study.
70% of the probable impacts of antibiotic prescriptions were gastrointestinal tract symptoms while the remaining 30% were diarrheal cases. Thus, the frequency of the upper GIT symptoms is much higher than diarrhea. On a range of 0-10, Trimethoprim and penicillin scored between 2-4 in the production of adverse antibiotic reactions, Cloxacillin scored between 6-7 while the highest relative risk was found in Erythromycin which scored well over 9. 0. In fact, erythromycin was the main culprit in the high frequency of upper gastrointestinal tract symptoms among the pediatric patients include in the study.
Even though the exact mechanisms of causation of diarrhea could not be conclusively determined, Clostridium difficile was the main suspect. Biochemical tests were positive for Clostridium difficile. Moreover, patients administered with Lactobacillus preparations were effective in reducing diarrheal cases hence confirming the alteration of gastrointestinal flora hypothesis. However, the physicians did not rule out the fact that some adverse effects may have been attributable to local mucosal irritation.